BIMTECH ians rendezvous with Dr. Arup Roy Choudhury

Who am I? How to achieve success? Which road to tread on? How to deal with the different faces surrounding me? The answers to these reverberating questions where lies the crux of an individual’s accomplishments, can be traced in “Management by idiots” authored by Dr. Arup Roy Choudhury, Chairman & Managing Director, NTPC Limited. He graduated in Civil Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra and a Post-Graduate in Management and Systems from IIT-Delhi. Shri Choudhury become the youngest Chief Executive Officer of a Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) at the age of 44 years when he joined as Chairman & Managing Director, National Buildings Construction Corporation Limited (NBCC).

On 8th February, 2014, Saturday morning students geared up for an interactive and book review session organized by Editorial conduit and Majlis, the debating and theatre society of BIMTECH. This pristine occasion was honored by the author himself. The house was called open by Director Dr. H.C. Chaturvedi delivering the welcome address to the gathering. He quoted the success of NBCC and the various MBA books written for B-schools in 24th century.

One of the faculty, Mr.Akhil Pandey reviewed the book. He quoted the author to be ‘pragmatic, human dynamo’. This 116 pager crisp composition is a succinct reflection of real life anecdotes. It’s been divided into 20 chapters and each chapter begins or is captioned with a liner, phrase or a popular saying, simple language and vocabulary, which keep readers glued to its pages and provides happy reading experience. Contrary to the cover page reflecting the book to be a light reader it being colorful and playful font as well the title of book, it carries a sea of knowledge with itself. Mr. Pandey cited Leonardo Da Vinci,” Simplicity is ultimate form of sophistication”. He said book to be concise, no use of management jargons, easy to read and ideas are systematic. He lamented that reading habit seems to be vanishing and twitter and Facebook has emerged to be new modes of communication for Gen Y who seeks readymade and quick solutions. ‘Brevity is the soul of wit’ was quoted by Mr. Pandey from Hamlet by Shakespeare in his review and praise for the author.

The book opens up quoting a popular movie dialogue Jo dar gaya who mar gaya where it motivates the reader to be fearless and confident. It even carries inspiring quotes by Rabindranath Tagore. Chapters like Jugaad, kal kare so aaj kar (avoid procrastination),Horn Please! is the amalgamation of all essential ingredients to the recipe of success. “Management by idiots” is like a capsule to the exigency of corporate honchos. It reflects on how to encourage and build enthusiasm among the subordinates by using appreciative intelligence and gifting them. It professes that Well done is better than well said, If you fall in love with your work, you will never have to work for the rest of your life. Other invaluable teaching to be imbibed is Sankalp shuddha hi siddha (If your intentions are pure, you are bound to succeed). He quotes Srimad Bhagvat Gita – Sheestoshna Sukhdukheshu Samah capturing that one should accept heat, cold, joy and sorrow with equanimity and detachment. He also enlightens us on ethics (samskar), morality, be a good family person, overcome complacency and handle criticism. Thus author exemplifies his humility in the book by acknowledging the contribution of and thanking his guru, parents, in-laws, wife etc.

Author addressed the gathering by narrating his experience in the journey of penning down this book. He mentioned the influence of Mr.Shridharan, metro man in his writing. Dr. Choudhury asked to suffer today, learn something today and apply this tomorrow as failing this is a management failure. Author propagates Mahatma Gandhi’s idea that Live as you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. Dr. Choudhury shares the conditions he had put up across the publisher Mc Graw Hill, not to change the content and the title. Another condition was to keep the price of the book low and equivalent to that of a cigarette pack so that a person travelling may complete reading it in his journey. He even commented on the title of his book and calls him to be an idiot, balance sheet of NTPC is best answer to the question that is NTPC run by a an idiot?

Finally the event culminated by an interaction between the students and the author. Personalized copy of books autographed by Dr. Choudhury was distributed among the students. Students were awarded for writing best review and the best presentation. Prof. K.K. Sinha presented the vote of thanks to the guest and audience. Thus this book seems to be a friend, guide, mentor, philosopher and much more for the future managers who are brimming with enthusiasm and passion to prove themselves in the corporate arena but might get trapped in the web of adverse internal and external circumstances.